Taurus Dinner - Update

A message from the Taurus committee. 

Unfortunately, due to current government guidelines we are not able to hold the rearranged Taurus dinner on Saturday 24th October this year.

In consultation with Phyllis Court and The Oxford Brookes coaching team we have therefore taken the decision to postpone the dinner date again to Saturday 20th March 2021.

We will of course keep a close eye on the ever changing guidelines and want to ensure that all can celebrate safely at the rearranged dinner. 
This will in fact be the date when the 2021 dinner would have been held!

Cancelling the dinner would have resulted in us being unable to get our money back from Phyllis Court, and by simply re-scheduling, our deposit is carried forward.

We trust you will all understand and bear with us.
Unfortunately a global pandemic wasn't anticipated whilst agreeing on the T's & C's of our contract! 

Whilst writing, it has been great to see so many of you joining our Taurus Strava groups and keeping active! Click here to find out more! 

All the best, 

Taurus Boat Club.

Newsletter - May 2020

The Bull Newsletter

May 2020

A quick hello from the committee. We hope that you and your family are safe and well and that you are staying healthy.

We have a few updates and introductions that we would like to share with you in regards to the Taurus committee. Before lockdown a few of us gathered to discuss the future of Taurus Boat Club. Five hours later we had all reminisced over our days at Brookes, shared ideas about the direction of Taurus Boat Club and put plans together for the forthcoming year. 

The main discussion points were around the creation of the 'Taurus Network' to connect the Taurus family together. This includes gaining an idea of the industries our Taurus members are working in, organising more events and creating opportunities for our members to get back on the water together! 

It was our plan to hold an AGM before the Taurus dinner to formally elect our committee members. Due to the postponement of the dinner I would like to introduce you to our team below and to formally elect them onto the committee at the dinner on 24th October! You can find out more about our team on our website. Tickets for the dinner are still available and can be purchased here. 

Pete Lowe ('93) - Chairman, 
Simon Speirs ('91) - Treasurer,
James Symington ('92) - Vice Chairman, 
Charlie Clarke ('17) - Club Secretary, 
Alexandra Wenyon ('18) & Tamsin Bryant ('08) - Events and Communications, 
James Forrester ('17) - Crew Captain. 

In this era of lockdown due to CoronaVirus, be aware of Speirsy, who whilst an old fart, is still quite fit and healthy, spent 8 days in hospital... message is that you just don't know how it will effect you - so just take care, stay safe and stay "Alert".

Please enjoy our latest news below and reach out to us if you would like to be included in our next newsletter through the contact form on our website. 

Latest News:

- Get Involved! 

We were gutted for all current athletes who missed out on competing at BUCS Regatta last month. We hope that you would like to continue to get involved with our Strava and Concept 2 groups. Keep logging your miles to stay competitive with each other! 

Our very own James Symington logged 1,000,000 meters on the erg in the first four months of this year (not bad for a 52 year old!). Now onto the next million! 

- The Head of the Charles Regatta

We are hoping to send crews out to compete in this years HOCR. It would be great to see how many bulls we can get to cross the finish line! We have been in conversation with the organising committee who are 'cautiously optimistic' that the event will go ahead in the fall. If not we should be able to enter for 2021 so please let us know if you would prefer to get involved next year! 

If you would like to be involved this year or next please get in touch with us through our contact form here!

- Records smashed! 

Meanwhile David Gillard (2015/16) is still plugging away with his long term goal aiming towards summer 2021, when he turns 50. In his first ever marathon erg in January he set a GB 40-49 record of 2:32:56 with average split 1:48.7. Triumph in Munich at the 30 min indoor champs followed.

David reports that lockdown training has been going well. Surely time to call Richard and Henry for one Last Dance?

- 7 Marathons in 7 days! 

Congratulations to current Brookes student Henry Blois-Brooke who has completed seven marathons in seven days to raise money for the NHS Charities together campaign. Henry averaged a time of 3 hours and 40 minutes and has raised over £10,000. Find out more. 

Get in touch! 

We are in the process of creating a database for Taurus members to stay connected and to gain an idea of what the Taurus family are up to. 
 
- Aims of the database: 
-Increased networking opportunities, 
-To be able to offer work experience for Taurus members, 
-Create a mentoring scheme for the Taurus family to offer career advice and guidance. 

Make sure that you are a paying Taurus member and get in touch with us through the contact form on our website. Please let us know your address if you would like us to send you Taurus goodies!! 

2020 Dates for the diary (hopefully!):

Saturday 17th October - Head of the Charles Regatta, Boston MA. 

Saturday 24th October - 18:00 AGM, 19:00 Annual Dinner, both held at Phyllis Court, Henley-on-Thames. 
 

Meet the committee!

We have a few updates and introductions that we would like to share with you in regards to the Taurus committee. Before lockdown a few of us gathered to discuss the future of Taurus Boat Club. Five hours later we had all reminisced over our days at Brookes, shared ideas about the direction of Taurus Boat Club and put plans together for the forthcoming year. 

It was our plan to hold an AGM before the Taurus dinner to formally elect our committee members. Due to the postponement of the dinner I would like to introduce you to our team here and formally elect them onto the committee at the dinner on 24th October! Tickets are still available for the dinner and can be purchased here. 

The main discussion points were around the creation of the 'Taurus Network' to connect the Taurus family together. This includes gaining an idea of the industries our Taurus members are working in, organising more events and creating opportunities for our members to get back on the water together! 

If you would like to be involved in any of the above please make sure that you are a paying Taurus member and reach out to us through the contact form on our website. 

Pete Lowe - Chairman

James Symington - Vice Chairman

Simon Speirs - Treasurer

Charlie Clarke - Secretary

Tamsin Bryant - Communications and Events

Alexandra Wenyon - Communications and Events

James Forrester - Crew Captain

Rearranged dinner date

Dear all,

We would firstly like to wish you all well in these difficult times. I hope that you are all staying safe and adjusting to a new pace of life. 

We are delighted to confirm that the new date of the dinner will be Saturday 24th October 2020 at Phyllis Court Club not the aforementioned date of the 17th. 

We are determined to make this dinner the best yet and we want to thank you for your patience and understanding in these uncertain times. 

For those who are training in isolation, for a bit of fun we have set up a Concept2 team page and entered us into the "World Erg Challenge". It is a leaderboard where we rack up as many metres as we can on the indoor rower, SkiErg or BikeErg. You can also see how you are doing compared to everyone else in the squad. There is a prize for the club at the top of the list at the end of each month. It would be great to see you getting involved and rack up the miles in the bank together! 

To join the team, simply follow the instructions below. Try and do this ASAP so we can build some momentum - you have until 30th March to join this particular months Challenge.

Go to Concept 2 website: https://www.concept2.com/

Click logbook at top middle,

Click sign up in top right,

Make an account with your email and name,

Click teams,

Scroll down,

Click choose a team,

Search for Taurus Boat Club,

Click join team,

Click send application! 

We have also set up a Strava group for those who are out cycling or running. Just login to https://www.strava.com/ and search for "Taurus Boat Club" to join in the fun!

All the best, 

The Taurus Committee. 

A note from the chairman...

Hello all,

I am delighted to invite you to the Taurus AGM which will be held at Phyllis Court, date tbc.

We wish to:
- Elect/ re-elect the committee,
- Sign off the constitution,
- Announce our plans to promote and move Taurus Boat Club forward. 

This year myself and my other committee members have thrown ourselves into relaunching Taurus Boat Club. We are keen to remind all Brookes past and present oarsmen and women what Taurus is. We would like to be a real support network for the Taurus family that provides social and networking opportunities for members both on and off the water. 

I welcome your thoughts in regards to the above and would welcome you to join myself and the committee at the AGM.

If you are not able to make the evening we are hoping to have a networking evening later in the spring in London. Further information will  be released in due course. Please also feel free to reach out to us via social media.

All the best, 

Pete Lowe, Chairman.  

Taurus Dinner - Phyllis Court Club, Henley-on-Thames.

Taurus Boat Club would love you to join us in celebrating the success of both past and present oarsmen and oarswomen at this years Taurus Dinner.

Further details will be released in due course with tickets going on sale in January.

Taurus HRR BBQ 2018!

Saturday 7th July 2018 at the Henley Cricket Ground please bring £10 cash for a burger and Pimms. 

Celebrate the success of the 2018 season and support current OBUBC athletes racing. 

For the first time, celebrate Oxford Brookes' 25 year anniversary of winning the Temple Challenge Cup by cheering the row over during the Saturday tea interval. 

Open to all Taurus members and friends after the last race!